Dr. Hicks is the Chair and Associate Professor of Marine & Estuarine Ecology of the Department of Biological Sciences at UTB. He received his Ph.D. in Quantitative Biology from the University of Texas – Arlington in 1999. His research focuses on capacity adaptations (e.g., physiological adjustments) in marine invertebrates (particularly molluscs) in response to environmental gradients (natural and anthropogenic). Dr. Hicks is actively engaged in research projects ranging from the restoration of Bahia Grande here in the lower Rio Grande Valley, to monitoring invertebrate and fish community use of artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico.

7. Hicks, D.W., D.L. Hawkins and R.F. McMahon 2000. Salinity tolerance of brown mussel Perna perna (L.) from the Gulf of Mexico: an extension of life table analysis to estimate median survival time in the presence of regressor variables. Journal of Shellfish Research 19(1): 203-212.

Invertebrate Zoology (BIOL 3114/3314): This is a course that covers the comparative morphology, evolution, systematic, and natural history of the invertebrates.

Marine Zoology (BIOL 4102/4302): This course is a study of the common marine animals, especially invertebrates in coastal waters, particular attention is given to structural and physiological relationships.

Bioenergetics (BIOL 5350): The use of quantitative analysis of energy resource partitioning to study the evolution of adaptational strategy at the biochemical, cellular, individual, population and ecosystem levels, including quantitative analysis of physiological processes and life history adaptations in terms of energetic efficiency.

Biostatistics (BIOL 5455): The application, interpretation, and critique of statistical methods in relation to the design and analysis of biological experiments. Topics include analysis of variance, linear regression, correlation, and selected advanced topics. This course will emphasize the use of statistical software packages and reporting of results.

Statistical Applications in Ecology: The application, interpretation, and critique of statistical methods for analyzing arrays of species-by-samples data as arise in biological monitoring of environmental impacts and fundamental studies of community ecology. Topics include standard diversity indices; hierarchical clustering; multidimensional scaling (MDS); principal components analyses (PCA); Analysis of similarities (ANOSIM); relating community structure to physiochemical parameters; and selected advanced topics. This course will emphasize the use of statistical software packages and reporting of results.

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